Each year, more than 135 million cellular phones are sent to landfills as millions of users upgrade to newer models at a rate of nearly 350,000 phones each day. Dave Knuth, Manager, Voice and Wireless Operations for DaimlerChrysler, recognized that his company had its own surplus of obsolete phones and was determined to do something about it. Knuth arranged for the donation of more than 3,000 out-of-service phones to local charity.
Knuth's saw the opportunities as two-fold. Charities could use the equipment to provide much-needed access for low-income families and victims of domestic abuse. Secondly, discarded cell phones pose an ecological risk if they are disposed of improperly.
"You don't want these things to end up in landfills," said Knuth. "Just like computers or any form of electronics, if cell phones are not handled properly and end up in a landfill, they create tremendous amounts of toxic waste."
Enter The Wireless Source, an Oakland County, Mich., charity that recycles these phones on behalf of assistance organizations, re-purposing old models for new users and donating the proceeds from the sale.
The charity, which has been in operation for 12 years, was created to address the growing need for an intermediary between business and the charitable community.
"As the markets were starting to broaden and people moved from one phone to the next, the question was 'what do we do with these phones?'" said Bob Sullivan, President and CEO, The Wireless Source. "The infrastructure just wasn't in place to deal with these issues, and those phones can be redeployed in areas or markets where they really have some use."
Knuth's charity contact, Margaret Schneider, Development Coordinator for Charitable Recycling at the Wireless Source, recognized the opportunity and led him through the various steps necessary to complete the transfer.
"He was interested in donating the phones to a charitable organization," said Schneider. "When the phones come to us, we not only check their functionality, but we also completely scrub all personal data to the phone's original state."
After this process is successfully completed, the phones are ready for secondary markets and the proceeds from their sale can be allocated to the intended charitable organizations.
Knuth and Schneider donated the proceeds to The Lighthouse, a prominent Oakland County charity. Given the national two percent cell phone recycling rate, Knuth's proposal was gratefully accepted and was anything but business-as-usual.
"DaimlerChrysler should be applauded," said Sullivan. "There are a lot of corporations that have these assets and don't apply them to charity."
Proceeds from the sale of the phones will be used to fund programs that provide assistance for low-income Oakland County residents.